Reunion
by maiss
Summary: It all started with the Mckinley High Class of 2012 Reunion. 10 years post graduating, Santana see’s her classmates again. Follows on from the events of up to the season 6 finale, Pezberry.


It wasn't really that much of a conincidence, Santana supposed as she downed the contents of her overly priced can of lemonade while secretly wishing it was something a little stronger. Albeit the vastness of it, they _did_ live in the same city _and_ were both heading back to another city in order to attend the _same_ event.

However, from the few messages sent to the _Glee Class of 2012_ groupchat that Santana had actually _read_, Santana had got the impression that pre-reunion meet ups had been going on for the last few days and Santana had simply assumed that Rachel Berry would be at the centre of them. She hadn't been able to travel back to Lima till the day before the reunion as a result of her work and surprisingly (although not really that surprisingly), neither had Rachel.

"Santana Lopez? Is that _you_?" Rachel had asked as she stood from her seat in the airport bar, her glass of white wine forgotten, looking completely aghast at the sight of the Latina.

It seemed Santana was suddnely unable to form a coherent sentence as her mouth opened and closed a few times. She had told herself she had at _least_ another 24 hours of preparing herself for any interaction with her old friends from high school, yet here she was, completely unprepared as Rachel pulled her into a bone crushing hug.

"How are you, Santana? Oh my god, I am _so_ happy to see you here!" Rachel gushed, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet with obvious excitement.

"Whoa, Berry. You look _good_." Santana would go as far to say that Rachel looked mildly attractive in her travel wear as she look the over excitable girl up and down. True, the years the two had spent together in New York after graduation had done wonders for Rachel's style, but it seemed Rachel was doing a fine job of keeping up with the latest trends without Santana's help.

Blushing, Rachel pulled on her hands till the two had reached the smaller girl's table.

"Thank you, Santana. As do you." Rachel said as she handed the drinks menu over to her friend who took a seat across from her. Santana rolled her eyes because she definitely didn't look good in her travel attire and with her well overdue a dye job, blonde hair tied up into a top knot. "Get whatever you like, it's on me."

"A coke is fine." She muttered quickly as she pushed the menu back over to Rachel's side of the table without even sparing it a second glance. A sheet filled with all of her favourite alcoholic concoctions was definitely not going to be beneficial to her recovery.

Rachel frowned. "Not that I condone drinking to deal with your problems, but I know how much you hate flying and I've learnt from experience that it may help. The Santana I know would be lapping up all the free alcoholic beverages she could get out of me. Honestly, get whatever you like, don't worry about the cost."

"Shut up, Rachel." Santana snapped, her voice icy, yet not as sharp as she wanted it to be. Rachel had no idea how close to the truth she was and it was thoroughly unnerving. "A coke is _fine."_

A brief silence fell over the pair, before Rachel muttered out a quiet 'okay' and then headed off towards the bar.

When Rachel returned, glass of coke in hand, Santana had made an effort to collect her thoughts and put a broard, appropriate smile on her face.

"So, tell me everything, Little Miss Boardway."

Rachel had smiled then and had proceeded to tell Santana all about her current part as Esther Hoffman in a revival of _A Star is Born_, a show currently on Broadway. Santana nodded in the right places and asked questions where it was appropriate but overall, she wasn't even slightly surprised. _Funny Girl_ incident aside, Rachel was destined to be making a name for herself on Broadway.

"Wait," Santana said suddnely, effectively cutting Rachel off mid-sentence to which the smaller girl frowned. "Your coming to this thing _alone_, right?"

Rachel huffed. "If by _thing_ you mean our high school reunion, then yes I am coming alone. I intended on staying with Kevin till _after_ the reunion, but he was way to irritating for that."

"Thank _god_. I genuinely thought I was going to be the only one."

The smaller girl rolled her eyes. "Admittedly, it's not exactly the way I intended to show our fellow high school peers how well I was doing with my life, but it what it is."

Santana scoffed then. "Tell me about it. I am surely the definition of a _Lima Loser_ by now."

"So... you're not seeing anyone? Like, at all?"

Santana feels like maybe she should snap and tell her friend to _mind her own business_, but then she fugures that Rachel's question is innocent enough and she probably owes it to the girl. Neither have mentioned the elephant in the room, the fact that Santana hasn't spoken to any of her old friends since the divorce _despite_ their best efforts. In the end, after months of consistent, unanswered calls, Santana had blocked the numbers assigned to 'Yentl' and 'Lady Hummel'.

"Nope. I haven't had anything serious with anyone since Brittany." Santana says as she picks at her nails, effectively avoiding Rachel's eyes. "I'm to busy for anything right now, anyway."

Rachel is smiling when she looks up, though it's sympathetic and Santana knows that she thinks she's just making up excuses. "You are? What are you doing?"

"I'm a primary school teacher."

"_What_? Like, for actual real?"

Santana can't help but laugh at the look of shear surprise on Rachel's face that she totally doesn't blame her for. The Santana that Rachel knew hated both children and helping literally _anyone_, so she can understand the shock. "Yeah, I started in September and finished for summer yesterday, hence the reason I couldn't travel till today."

Rachel begins to stomp her feet excitedly beneath the table. "You _did_? Santana, this is huge!"

Santana just shrugged as a blush takes over her features and couldn't help but breathe an audible sigh of relief when there gate was called. Abandoning her still full coke, Santana stood and followed a chuckling Rachel like a lost puppy through the airport. It was no secret that Santana was the worst and most unorganised flier known to man.

Predictably, Rachel had convinced the man with the seat number beside Santana's that her assigned seat would be much more comfortable for him. As a result, Santana was sat by the window, a bored expression on her face as Rachel sat beside her, talking the ear off a kind looking lady who sat on the aisle seat.

"So your living in New York still?" Rachel asks when the woman sat on the aisle escapes Rachel's incessant need to chat with the excuse of a toilet break.

Santana sighs because she was so hoping to avoid any form of personal discussions with Rachel during this flight. "Yep. I live with my best friend in Tribeca."

"_Oh_, I live in West Village." Rachel squeals and Santana rolls her eyes because she doesn't remember Rachel Berry being as permanently excited like she is now.

"You do?" Santana asks, because despite her annoyance, her interest has peaked at the mention of her favourite place in the city. "That's like, me and Jem's dream area to live in."

It's the first time Santana's offered up any personal information _willingly_, and Rachel can't help but smile upon hearing that Santana actually made a life for herself beyond Lima, despite all she's obviously gone through. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Santana says as she rests her head on her hand and stares out of the window, an almost dreamy smile on her face. "I guess it's like, where we'll settle down or whatever."

"You and Jem?" Rachel asks quietly, notching the way Santana seems to be in a trance of sorts as she gazes out at the setting.

"Me and Jem." It's like it's natural, the way she answers. As if it's obvious and fact and yet her voice is softer than Rachel's heard since like, senior year of high school.

"So," Santana begins suddnely, as if snapping from her trance. "You see much of anyone from McKinley?"

If Rachel is curious about her behaviour, she doesn't mention it. "Yeah, well I go over to Kurt and Blaine's every week for a Sunday roast-"

"How _very_ gay." Santana says with an eye roll. "They have a kid, right?"

Rachel frowns. "Yeah, Coco... How did you know that?"

Scoffing, Santana replies. "Instagram, obviously."

"You follow Kurt on Instagram?" Rachel asks, her voice strained and her face conveying an expression of offence.

"Yes. _And _he follows me back." Santana says, smirking at the expression on Rachel's face. "Chill out, Berry. I also follow you."

"_You do_?"

"Of course I do, the real Rachel Berry." She laughs. "Seriously, you have so many fucking followers, I'm not surprised you never noticed."

Blushing, Rachel replies with, "I'm sorry Santana."

"It's chill, Berry. I _honestly_ don't care."

But Rachel's not done. "It's just... I tried to reach out to you for months and months and, I don't know. In the end, we figured you just didn't want to be found."

Her throat is tightening and she's blinking back tears at the mention of the topic she was so keen to avoid, but she forces out a sarcastic laugh an eye roll anyway. "It's not like I went fucking _missing_, Berry. God, I forgot how dramatic you were."

The expression on her face now is one of a wounded puppy, so Santana opts to instead focus her eyesight on the blinking red light on the end of airoplane wing.

"Okay, so you just cut us all off." Rachel says. It's a statement, not a question because they both know that it's the truth. "But it sucked, Santana. For me and Kurt and _everyone_ who cares about you."

Santana doesn't look at Rachel. She _can't_.

She'd spent the better part of four years imaging this confrontation, imaging what she'd say and how she'd say and imagined it happening in almost every setting known to man. _Except_ from this.

She's wedges into a corner, on a fucking plane. There's no way to escape, no way to get away and it makes her skin crawl.

"You don't understand, Rachel." Santana says finally, her voice hardly above a whisper as she looks up at Rachel's kind, kind face. "I... can we talk about something else?"

Rachel stares at her with those big brown eyes and Santana can tell she cares, but she doesn't owe Rachel an explanation, does she?

"_Please_." Santana says, practically begging.

"Okay." Rachel says quietly as she squeezes Santana's sweatshirt-clad fore arm upon noticing the tears in the Latina's eyes. "I see Tina and Mike whenever I go back to Lima. Puck and Quinn too."

Rachel just knows that the smile on Santana's face isn't fake, despite the tears still in her eyes. It's real and wide and _happy_. "How are they?"

"Mike and Tina have two kids-"

"I met Harry, we went to his Christening."

_We_. Brittany and I.

Rachel nods. "Well, they had a daughter too, called Alyssa. They got married, did you know that?"

Santana nods because yes, she did know that. She received the invite via Facebook with a P.S. reading _We don't have your new address. We hope you can make it! We miss you. _

Santana didn't go to the wedding.

"Quinn and Puck are engaged." Rachel says and Santana's eyebrows practically shoot into her hairline. "They have a son as well, William."

\- x

"You're definitely coming tomorrow, right?"

With an eye roll, Santana replies as she tugs her cap down a little further over her eyes and drags her case along behind her. "Yes, Rachel. I'm not going to bail."

"You promise though?" Rachel asks, her voice pleading as she gazes at the side of Santana's face, waiting for the reassurance she's so desperately after. Santana however, is scanning the crowds for any sign of a family member who she'd made _promise_ would collect her from the airport.

With a huff, Santana turns to Rachel. Her hard gaze softens at the desperate look on her face as she reaches out to hold one of her old roommates hands between her own.

"Rach, I'm coming, okay? I _promise_." As if out of instinct and before she's even really realised what it is she's doing, she links her pinky with Rachel's. After a couple of seconds, she drops her hand quickly, as if burnt.

She's so thankful when she turns away from Rachel's confused gaze and meets her brother's eyes across the arrivals zone.

"I'll see you tomorrow, okay? I'll pick you up on my way or something." Santana says distractedly as she waves excitedly towards her brother and starts to head towards him, leaving Rachel in the arrivals zone staring sadly after her.


End file.
